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Platoon already up and active, before we all gathered for the FNF Briefing:

Ill leave the main debrief to the other members of the platoon.

Thanks for starting early, its nice to get a few hours of play in, before the small hours call to me.

I would also like to acknowledge the presents of BWC who MAX crashed "East Canyon Checkpoint", we were sieging with Alphas armour
Unknown to us BWC redeployed to "The Crown", as we disengaged from the base, where they then pulled several prowlers with gunners
who were waiting for us to exit the east bridge of "The Palisade", they crested the hill as the main part of our armour column turned right down the hill and took us out hard and fast, I managed to get 2 rounds off, before been hit by the 3 prowlers at once.

Thanks to [MENTION=57077]bregard031[/MENTION] for taking over the lead, and opting to platoon and lead alpha.

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I joined up after Bregard took command and landed in Vlad's Bravo air squad. That was the most fun I've had playing air in a long time. I took up an air superiority role in a squad mostly focused on air strikes and flew interference on enemy aircraft when they engaged our massive flight of aircraft. Later on, Vlad started assigning me as a scout to gain intel on enemy positions and fly ahead of our coordinated airstrikes to verify target locations, which was a lot of fun.

Vlad's squad leading was excellent, and did a great job of preventing attrition from grounding members of the squad. We did some impressive looking formation flying and disciplined strikes on targets both independently and in support of Alpha's armour. In particular, I remember calling out a specific tank caught out in the open behind the enemy lines and then leading the squad in towards it for an airstrike. I would have paid good money to see that tanker's face when he saw a massive wall of aircraft zero in on him. It was a great time and reminded me of some of the best times flying air in Planetside 2. If I had a critique, it would be that the cycle time from receiving a target for an air strike, getting the flight into the air and formed up, traversing the map to the target, and making the strike was far too long, and caused us to miss opportunities or scramble to adjust for targets when our intel was outdated. Vlad eventually mitigated this issue by sending me ahead to scout just ahead of the rest of the squad while they maneuvered around for a good firing angle, allowing us to better correct at the last minute, but there was still significant turnaround.

After Vlad left, I lead the air squad for a brief time and briefly attempted to act as a spotter to try and address the issue, but didn't meet a whole lot of success (AA was thick, and enemy air was swarming), and I was really itching to lead infantry instead, so we switched out. What followed was a whirlwind of force deployment across the face of Indar, starting with a hard fought defense of Howling Pass where we set up withering fire from the towers to crush a (rather impressively executed!) TR attack on the base, followed by a switch to the Vanu Front at the West Highland's Checkpoint base, currently held by the SPANDEX HOARD.

We dropped both squads on the top of the hill (onto a trio of very surprised and not particularly long-lived snipers) and proceeded to provide overwatch and suppressive fire from up top. Alpha eventually took back to their Galaxy and deployed on the western hill to try and knock down a Sunderer nest on the hill. That nest was clearly the driving force behind what was holding the friendly forces in the area back, and I decided that we should also pop over there to help. I set an LZ close on the hill and ordered ZombieSnack in his Galaxy to come pick us up while we continued to hit everything we could see in the meantime. We managed to attract quite a lot of enemy attention! Unfortunately, some of that attention ended up being from enemy armour, and regrettably I set the LZ at a spot where the armour shelling us from the south had an angle on it. We loaded up quickly, but the armour poured damage on fast enough that the Galaxy died almost immediately with all of us inside. Fortunately, the beacon I'd placed was still active, and we dropped on the hill again. After a few seconds of frantic fighting with the infantry encroaching on us, we were firmly situated again.

From that point on we resolved ourselves to being the biggest pain in the butt we could be, to try and draw Vanu attention away from the front lines. We succeeded admirably at our goal of lashing out at everything around us in a big cry for attention. Pretty soon we had armour shelling us from the south, infantry constantly encroaching on us from multiple sides, vehicles from the valley putting fire up, and sniper fire pouring in. All the while, we held the line, knocking down Sunderers placed in the inside of the base, suppressing enemy firing positions, and generally just making a nuisance of ourselves.

With Alpha and the rest of the NC knocking on the front door, we decided that we needed to be a more aggressive nuisance. I ordered us down the hill to stack up on the tower, and once we got there safely we took the southeastern tower and set up a firing position on top of it. Still thinking in terms of a diversion, I advised my squad members to "make friends ballistically" and we started making noise again.

However, I felt the flow of battle turn away from us and an opportunity opened up as things grew quieter on our side of the base as Vanu rushed north to meet the incoming NC. I ordered the squad to rush into the building on the point, my plan being to hit the control point and hold it long enough for the rest of the NC to arrive. Immediately inside the door was a Vortex MAX pinging away at someone on a distant hillside. I rounded the corner and dropped a Shrike rocket into his lap, and then my squad breached the building and flattened the MAX with a frankly comically level of firepower. With that, we rushed onto the point and prepped for a hold. Alpha soon joined us inside, and then, when I felt like an enemy push was coming, I ordered us to charge forward into the courtyard and squash it flat. The Vanu tried to get back onto the point, but our squads held them off despite a chaotic scene of crossfires and grenades, and the base was locked down as more NC poured in.

Later, after a thwarted attack on Allatum Broadcast Hub, we were pushed back to the very same hill we'd harassed the Vanu from earlier. With a terrifyingly large wave of Vanu infantry bearing down on us, I had us first use the trench near the road, then fall back further to the top of the hill, and as the Vanu bore down on us the it was starting to look grim indeed. Vlad had, with great foresight, parked a Sunderer with a mortar loadout in the northern trenches of the hill, allowing us respawns and a little bluebeery support, but the situation looked to be an inevitable route. The map was blinking with what looked like two or three full squads of Vanu infantry, and the tide of spandex reached the Sunderer. I ordered the squad to keep falling back, and to draw them out and force them to waste time pursuing us and hunting us down.

Vlad credits the mortars on the Sunderer. I wasn't in a vantage point to see much else than the dirt, but I can believe it. The Vanu attack broke on us and we managed to regain ground before they started coming back at us again. It was chaotic and the fight always felt like seconds from collapse, but we kept pulling through and gaining ground. Bregard ordered us to redeploy to help Alpha hold the base proper, which I resolved to do after a final push to buy a little more time on the hill. And then... we reached the top of the hill, and realized we were all out of Vanu. What's more, we had clear line of sight on enemy spawn logistics. I advised Bregard of this and he ordered me to maintain my position. We then, over the course of a grueling fight, started raining suppressive fire down onto enemies in the base. Their positions were well situated to fight the defenders, but were completely unprotected from the vantage point we possessed. Eventually, with persistent rocket fire, we managed to down the Sunderers, despite constant sniper and tank fire keeping our heads down.

There was more. A LOT more. Around this point my memory starts getting real hazy; it was a lot of back and forth across the map as Bregard dropped us into fights of opportunity.

One maneuver that sticks out from this period was us heading over to the Southwestern Mao satellite/Briggs Labs to shut down a TR attack. Our plan was to drop on Briggs and force the TR to come back and deal with us, but AA fire downed us and Alpha had to drop alone. Adapting on the fly, I led my squad to first destroy an enemy Sunderer near our position, and then clear off an enemy firing position in the rocks to our south. Once there, we held a commanding firing position that allowed us to help tilt the fight in the midfield as the blues poured out of Mao Southwest and the enemy tried to set up armour and defenses in a series of rocky ridges.... ridges that we had clear firing angles on. Alpha wiped during this time (the TR redeployed several platoons back to Briggs once their attack fell apart) and rejoined us as Bregard gave us freedom of maneuver and collaboration. I decided to take the big building on the west of Briggs labs that overlooks the spawn. To do this, I had our squad maneuver down the ridgeline towards it, then alpha cover us as we charged the building, then cross after we secured it. It was ultimately unnecessary--the vengeful NC force coming our way was overkill--but it was a fun little maneuver that was executed well. The suppressive fire we rained down on the TR stuck in their spawn was also overkill, and also fun.

There were other things, and other great fights (including an insane door to door hold on the central facility in J908 Impact Site against overwhelming numbers of TR defenders) but after four hours of that I'm all out of memory brain things. Stuff. Words? Maybe. Anyways!

It was a hell of a fun night, guys.

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Early on it was chaos, lack of squad cohesion and zerg-I-ness. But slowly though the tried and true tactic of using a point man, some general descriptions of my expectations to the squad, and some luck, we were able to build some squad cohesion out of a squad with very little TG presence. And once we had squad cohesion, then it got awesome. Thanks to Phalen for leading Alpha squad for a VERY long time today with very little oversight from me.
Thank you to everyone who participated and shout out to our two new recruits featured in this footage.

I will let the video speak for itself. FOR HIGH QUALITY WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The question foremost in my mind is "what will bring the most tactical fun to the server?"

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The night begins with vts asking for some TacticalGamer fun. I was in good dispositions to call the shot for our pair.
So, obviously, I ended up leading a pair. Of squads.
At some point, Toddshooter went in-and-out to remind us of the Friday Night Fight that would take place at 2000 (GMT-0500).

Operations were launched from the Indar Northern Warpgate. We went West, in quest of some noteworthy Armour scuffle. As it was casual, the leadership was complying with “leading by example” more than a strong micromanagement of assets. Saurva was hit by the Vanu Sovereignty, so the group swept them from the Bio Lab down to Indar Excavation Site, picking off every single piece of technoscrap on their way to support their infantry in the bases behind.
As population was shifting into New Conglomerate’s disfavor, the group journeyed back North and participated to the demise of the Vanu Sovereignty at Coramed Labs. A dead end, it was, in the arms of the northern mountainside of Indar Communication Array.

At some point, the group attracted enough attention to its rolling thunder to find resistance even while on the move. Between D7 and D8 (Indar Excavation Site and Quartz Ridge Camp), it has been caught in a vivid crossfire, a mix of Anti-Vehicule Phalanx Turrets, Saron HRB & Supernova FPC and Anti-Vehicule Mana Turrets was pouring damage on us. CoiledTortoise kept all his wits about him, pointed out a safe zone to move and most of the group’s assets made it to safety.

Short review on this moment:
CoiledTortoise was my gunner at the time. As Ghostshooter101 once said, if I remember correctly, there is great value to have a part of the leadership in a gunner seat. It often offers a better situational awareness and as a gunner does not have to bother with going from a position to the next, he can plan things more worthy than a simple route. CoiledTortoise is an emeritus member. His thoughts are TG-approved. I used them as if they were mine, because I know they are the best we have to offer, so I do not have to spend more time in such a harsh environment to find safety.

Cockroaches-Magriders lived a half-life as they were ambushed to surge on a much smaller prey, at Quartz Ridge Camp. Thanks to its particular advantage at point blank that makes it so resilient, no Vanguards were lost.
Strong with a pair of dozen of assets, mixed air and ground, the group was about to shift against Terran Republic to eastern front when the Friday Night Fight began.

In aparté, as a reality check, this little text took me 2,5 hours to write.

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I really enjoyed that video Garthra. Now I know how it feels to be revived by me hehe! (noticed you're really quick on the revive button o_o) And it's interesting to see your style of play, how your doing so much things at the same time, giving orders, looking at the map, repairing, looking at squad tab, looking at the map again for other fights on continent, guiding a point man, shooting at stuff, thinking tactically, adapting, dealing with people not following the squad, etc! It's non-stop! And absolutely no stress in your voice. And that was just a small operation, not a big platoon leading on a 96+ fight! It's probably not that much for you because of your experience, but.. wow! ^^
I knew SL/PL wasn't easy, but now I really see how it is and I appreciate it even more. Thanks to all TG leaders! :D

P.s.: Noticed how you don't get in cover when opening the menus and just let yourself killed... I take it as a full trust in us, medics. ^^